Secular people often make giving a solitary activity at the end of the year, one that feels like a sacrifice. That’s the wrong way to think about giving back. We learned a lot from churches and temples and the way they turn giving into an enjoyable, uplifting social activity. Our profile of a master pastor at a mega-church, Bill Hybels, reveals some of the magic he employs. We all are social animals and when we do things with a group of people we like, the activity becomes more fun.

So form a book club and engage in a few volunteer or giving activities together—or link your book club to Book Clubs for Change, bookclubs4change.org. Choose a need in your community or an area of the world that you all care about. Then choose a topic and an organization you might work with. Or maybe consider an on-location trip to the area and meet some of the people you want to help?

Or join a chapter of Dining for Women, which is one of the secular organizations that borrows from the religious notion of fellowship and joyous giving for a cause. DFW has guests bring a pot luck dish to a host's home and then they all donate the money they would spend at a restaurant to a chosen cause empowering women worldwide. Some groups have a subcommittee screen a list of finalists and the group votes on a final selection. In A Path Appears, we list some other great organizations—there’s even one called Beer for Books—that make giving a social and fun occasion.

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Jesus took a whip to crooked Jew banksters, Chrissy. Why don't you ask him. And he called famous religious leader children of Satan to their faces and in public. But yeah, angry mobs of people just like you and Donna used to throw rocks at him for being such an "abusive" man.

Why? Is that where YOU do it @ philip? And as adam, the troll, only does his shenanigans in public, where ELSE would we discuss him? Scene of the crime is as good a place as any! And better than most! And if YOU have a problem with it, take it up with someone higher up! In other words....talk to the booty, cuz the hands off duty!!!!

Yes. He was a problem child that's for sure. I never bothered with listening to him speaking bad about my religion. And never did bother with becoming a baptized Christian. The last thing he ever said to me was "Who really is my mother". Can you believe a bible thumper would speak to his own mother like that?

I didn't like the way Jesus talked bad about my religion either. And never did become a baptized Christian. Do you what the last thing he ever said to me was? "Who really is my mother". And nursed that little brat for over 5 years!

I feel like my body has gotten totally out of shape, so I got my doctor's permission to join a fitness club and start exercising.
I decided to take an aerobics class for seniors.
I bent, twisted, gyrated, jumped up and down, and perspired for an hour.
But, by the time I got my leotards on, the class was over.

Two elderly gentlemen from a retirement center were sitting on a bench under a tree when one turned to the other and said:
'Slim, I'm 83 years old now and I'm just full of aches and pains.
I know you're about my age. How do you feel?'
Slim said, 'I feel just like a newborn baby."Really!? Like a newborn baby?'
'Yep. No hair, no teeth, and I think I just wet my pants.'

The state of what's usually called the size-acceptance movement in this country hasn't felt very encouraging to me recently. Radiance, a key voice of the movement, ceased publishing with its winter 2001 issue. Mode, which at least cautiously pushed the upper range of fashion models into size-18 territory, just folded. John Popper has become half a popper, and despite federal paper shuffling Honda still refuses to make seat belts that accommodate passengers larger than 215 pounds. A few months ago a friend had weight-loss surgery.

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